Day 2: Diving Medicine

We've had no patients/ tourists who need to be certified medically fit to dive since.. 12pm? And now, I have been left alone in the Centre (or "the Chamber" as they like to call it).

Today, I have seen nothing exceedingly exciting. Yet. 2 perforated eardrums (oto-barotrauma) and certified (under supervision, ofc) 3 people medically fit to dive. Out of the 3, one was a doc who suffers from very mild exercise-induced asthma and another was a type I diabetic. Dr Ahmed (my supervisor, Dr Adel's lieutenant) nearly said no to both of them. Who knew diving was so medically dangerous..!

Asthma and DM are both very common and well-recognised in the UK. Most of the time, I feel that they are promoted as diseases which mean can't stop you from doing things. But in reality, it can.

Asthmatics, especially exercise-induced asthmatics (see me), are at especially high risk. When you are diving in the sea (and not your local swimming pool), there is a lot of surface swimming and you may encounter very strong currents, which means you have to swim. A lot. Therefore = a lot of exercise, which (in exercise-induced asthmatics) can lead to severe bronchospasm.

Also, the air pressure in the scuba tanks can be up to ~200 bar (= 3,000 psi), which means it will inflate your end-alveoli. So imagine you are diving along happily, then you hit a strong current and you have to work very hard to get to safety. As a result of this, you suffer some bronchospasm in your small airways. Result? Air-trapping in your end alveoli. Doh. Air trapping ==> popping ==> pneumothorax.


But anyway, this guy who suffered from very mild exercise-induced asthma was also an intensive care SHO (I'm guessing, he was 25), so Dr Ahmed said to him, "As long as you understand the possible consequences," He did, "And you know your own body," He also did, "Then I am happy for you to do the course."



And now, I am cold. They *insist* on having all three air-cons ON at freeze-your-arse-off degrees in this tiny tiny space. I switched 2 of them off while Dr Ahmed was out, mwahaha. He came back, saw a wee kid with a blunt finger trauma in his freeezing room, sat back down in the "main office" and said, "Why is it suddenly warm in here?"

....

Coz I'm cold-blooded..?